“There’s another thing I found out I can do when I watch TV shows,” Woody said, his eyes flashing topaz with excitement. “But they have to be happening at the same time I watch them.”

Nat looked puzzled for a moment. “Oh, you mean live shows, like morning talk shows? Not a recorded program?”

“And like Blue Peter.” Woody grinned.

“O … K,” said Nat slowly, “what are you talking about?”

“I made one of the cats on the kiddie show Blue Peter do something bad,” said Woody guiltily. “I puuushed him with my mind.”

At the mention of the Blue Peter cat, a big bell rang in Nat’s brain. His eyes widened in amazement. “That was you?”

Woody grinned again. “Yup.”

Nat’s face split into an enormous grin, too, as he remembered the famous clip from a year or two back. It had been pure TV gold and had been on all the outtake programs, even making the nightly news. The horse-riding daughter of a minor member of the British royal family had appeared on Blue Peter with her Olympic gold medals. She had taken off her riding helmet and the Blue Peter cat had famously used it as a toilet. The presenters had lost control of the program, cracking up unprofessionally. The camera had loved it.

“Let’s think about this,” said Nat, trying not to get too excited. “You pushed my mind to see what would happen if I hadn’t taken you away from Mr. Tate. You made the Blue Peter cat go wee-wee in Her Highness’s helmet. Could you push Scale into letting us go?”

“I dunno,” said Woody. “But I might be able to make him see things that aren’t there, things he’s really afraid of.”

“How do you know what’ll frighten him?” asked Nat, curious.

“I’m not sure yet,” replied Woody, smiling. “But using tel … telepathy, I can find out.”

Scale was flushed with success. He was one step closer to achieving his goal and one step closer to getting rid of Gabriel Gruber. How he detested him. The only reason he put up with him was because of Gruber’s persuasive hold over the government officials at Whitehall. The Proteus project had been on hold for too long; with the return of the Wolven they could resume their experiments and their plan to provide the world’s superpowers with an elite army of indestructible mercenaries.

Scale closed his orange eyes in rapture as he descended into the bowels of Helleborine Halt. Gabriel Gruber would be history in a few hours.